Mischief Theatre's THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG to Kick Off UK Tour at The Marlowe Theatre, Jan 21

MISCHIEF Theatre's West End hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong opens its 17-week tour at The Marlowe Theatre later this month.

The Play That Goes Wrong exploded onto the stage with phenomenal success last year. Opening at the Old Red Lion in London to unanimous rave reviews, the show then transferred to the West End where it enjoyed two successive runs at the Trafalgar Studios, followed by a sell-out season at the Edinburgh Festival.

Triple Olivier award-winning Top Hat producer Kenny Wax, who is co-producing the UK tour, said: "A few months ago a producer friend asked me to accompany him to see The Play That Goes Wrong at the Trafalgar Studios. I was totally charmed and the two of us waited for the cast to emerge from their dressing room and we offered them a deal on the spot.

"I should add that I have never been quite so impulsive before, but I had a real desire to help this bunch of daredevil and totally committed young actors to bring their show to a wider audience.

"I became a theatre producer to entertain audiences, that's what we unashamedly did with Top Hat. There's something very satisfying about hearing an audience laugh, cheer and to then watch them leave the theatre with an enormous sense of elation. I have no doubt that this production will do the same."

Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and directed by Mark Bell, The Play That Goes Wrong is a highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned farce and Buster Keaton-inspired slapstick delivered with split-second timing and ambitious daring. The play introduces The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society who are attempting to put on a 1920s murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong ... does, as the accident-prone thesps battle on against all the odds to get to their final curtain call.

Mischief Theatre was founded in 2008 by a group of graduates of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and began as an improvised comedy group. Recent winners of the Edinburgh Festival's Spirit of The Fringe Award, Mischief Theatre performs across the UK and internationally with improvised and original scripted work. The recent success of The Play That Goes Wrong has put Mischief firmly in the spotlight, attracting international attention from theatre producers worldwide. The company is led by Artistic Director Henry Lewis and Company Director Jonathan Sayer. This is Mischief's first number one UK tour.

Director Mark Bell trained at Ecole Internationale de Theatre, Jacques Lecoq. Credits include: Endgame (BAC), On the Road To Baghdad (Sadler's Wells), Amok, The Breeze and Backwash (Hoipolloi), and Get Out Of Here (Commotion). He has taught and directed at LAMDA, CSSD and East 15 acting schools in the UK, and at Cours Florent Paris, ITCA in Italy and Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

The Play That Goes Wrong is at The Marlowe Theatre from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 January, with performances at 7.30pm and 2.30pm (Thursday and Saturday). Tickets, priced from £15 to £31.50, are from the Box Office on 01227 787787, or at marlowetheatre.com. There will be a signed performance at 7.30pm on Thursday, and an audio-described performance at 2.30pm on Saturday.

The Play That Goes Wrong has been nominated for the Whatsonstage.com Award for the TICKETMASTER Best New Comedy 2014. The winners will be announced on 23 February.